"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.

I think that when you install a proprietary driver the kernel, Xorg, and that driver should only upgrade in sync when the driver allows.
More specifically what I'm trying to say is if the package for the driver recommends a certain kernel or Xorg that is where those packages stay until an upgraded driver that supports the upgraded kernel and Xorg comes out.
This is a package management issue that could have been fixed ages ago and in fact you can manually lock down these packages and achieve stability.